freezng-foods-msg

freezng-foods-msg – 7/25/06

Comments on freezing foods. Good methods.

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Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2000 11:52:46 EST

From: Mordonna22 at aol.com

Subject: Re: SC - freezing things

Seton1355 at aol.com writes:

<< Tofu gets tougher, potatoes get softer, tomatoes turn into sauce. >>

And onions get stronger

Mordonna the Cook,

SunDragon's Western Reaches

Atenveldt

(m.k.a. Buckeye, AZ)

Date: Wed, 28 Aug 2002 14:01:08 -0400

From: "Nick Sasso" <NJSasso at msplaw.com>

To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Freezing food

I completed my food safety certification this summer (and it was a

hoot), so I I want to add a few documentable cents' worth. Please be

sure that you are handling the food properly according to food agencies'

guidelines to be sure you are serving safe food. The general guideline

of thawing before cooking is safe, but not required according to the

June 2002 materials provided by Serv-Safe, the industry standard in

Restaurant Food Safety training.

According to the manual and the standards for the training, thawing of

a food product can be performed as a step in the cooking process, and

the previously cooked food needs to be brought up to 160F in order to be

ensured safe by their guidelines (I can provide chapters and verses if

requested). You should bring the food through the 40F to 140F zone as

quickly as possible, and stir or agitate often. Boil in bag will be a

challenge if large quantities are brought to heat at once . . . . gotta

ensure even heat distribution for safe reheating.

The key will be to follow safe freezing and storage techniques at the

front end to increase convenience and safety at the back end. Cool you

food in flat containers, no more than 2 to 3 inches deep, depending on

food item. If you were to put your food into the bag and then lat flat

to cool then freeze, you will have a much safer reheat on the back end.

Melting is but one issue for plastics. Remember that there is chemical

leeching that can occur before melting. This could lead to anything

from nothing at all to off flavors to your wonderful meal to adverse

physical reactions in diners sensitive to plastics or their degraded

by-products. There are products on the market designed for reheating,

and often can be re-used for economy sake. So, you get to make the

choice yourself (testing might be good here) as to what products you

wish to store and heat in.

pacem et bonum,

fra niccolo difrancesco

Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2002 22:38:33 -0500

To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

From: "Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius" <adamantius.magister at verizon.net>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] This 'n that

Also sprach Robin Carroll-Mann:

>What is the best way to wrap large quantities of chicken parts for

>the freezer?

It kind of depends on what you're doing with them. If you need to

cook them from a frozen state (which _is_ doable), you should

probably pack them with something like parchment between them, if

appearance matters, so they can be easily separated. Maybe you could

lay them out flat on a sheet pan (or reasonable, freezer-sized,

equivalent), freeze, and then remove and bag them. If for stock, you

could probably just put them in large, heavy zip-lock bags and be

just fine.

Adamantius

From: "MSN" <clarenburg at msn.com>

To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Subject: [Sca-cooks] This 'n that

Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2002 03:06:17 -0800

I just started reading this list so please forgive me if this

information is so commonplace as to be old hat.

When you add stuff to your freezer it warms your whole freezer until the

freezer's compressor eventually cools it again. When you add a lot of

stuff then the thermal mass becomes large, warming the freezer quite a

lot and requiring a long time to cool back to sub-freezing temperatures.

This has the potential to thaw your other frozen foods which ruins some

(ice cream) and may promote nasty bacterial growth and texture changes

in others.

Moreover, non-commercial freezers do a lousy job of quickly penetrating

more than about two inches into a bag of soup, stew or a heavily sauced

meat dish. They do a little better with unsauced chicken parts and meat

joints, but not much. So when you attempt to freeze several bags of

stuff at the same time, the food in the middle of a thick bag -- or

especially in a bag at the middle of a stack! -- will take a *long* time

to cool to freezing and may have ample time to go bad. Keep in mind that

stacking three 2" bags is equivalent to a single 6" thick thermal mass

and the food in the middle will take hours and hours to freeze.

Also remember that the cooling elements in freezers tend to be in the

walls (also in shelves of some upright freezers). You will want

unfrozen bags to be right next to these elements instead of relying on

other frozen foods to slowly conduct the heat/cold themselves.

But while the freezer is the only way to freeze food, it is not the only

way to quickly cool food. Be creative and prevent your freezer from

blowing a gasket trying to chill gallons of boiling broth. A simple

cold tapwater bath will work wonders to bring bags of hot foods below

room temperature. You can then go further by creating an ice water bath

in a cooler, sink or large pot. Buying a few bags of ice is *much*

cheaper than ruining a freezer full of food. The refrigerator is not

usually a great choice for pre-chilling foods because the same

compressor cools both your fridge and freezer (except if you've got a

Sub-Zero).

Finally, exposure to frigid air is what causes freezer burn. So squeeze

all the air out of your bags before sealing them, and use thicker-walled

bags for longer-term freezing.

Suggestions:

1) Keep bag contents' thickness to 2" or less. Bag lengths do not

matter.

2) Space bags evenly throughout the freezer compartment so they

will not join to create a larger thermal mass. DO NOT STACK

UNFROZEN BAGS.

3) Try to place unfrozen bags next to freezer's cooling elements.

4) Don't add too much to one freezer at one time.

5) Quickly pre-cool bags of food in ice water baths or the

refrigerator.

Never stick a hot bag into the freezer.

6) Squeeze out all the air and use thick-walled freezer bags.

Nathan Adelaar

(mka Nathan Clarenburg)

From: "Kirsten Houseknecht" <kirsten at fabricdragon.com>

To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2002 12:41:34 -0500

Subject: [Sca-cooks] freezing

vaccum packing lets you freeze meats better than anything.. and a lot of

veggies too...

now i have a vacuum sealer, but if you DON'T have one......you can get close

by these methods........

1. put food in zip lock bag..... close all but small gap in zipper........

insert clean straw into gap... inhale HARD until the bag forms tightly

around the food. withdraw straw and seal bag. it takes some practice, but

its what i do when i am freezing my homemade bread (the vaccuum sealer

crushes bread..)

2. submerge the zip lock bag in a pan of clean water.. the water should come

up close to the zipper, but NOT get into the bag. the pressure from the

water forces a lot of the air out. close the zipper, and dry the bag off

before putting it in the freezer (i didnt once... the bag froze to the

freezer tray)

just for the record.. i adore my vaccuum sealer. i think they are possibly

the greatest way to store stuff like dried beans and grains..... because i

can keep the blasted bugs out of them (we have a *real* bad problem with

grain moths here) and i havent had any freezer burn on my frozen foods

since i started using it.

Kirsten

Date: Sun, 5 Dec 2004 09:54:01 EST

From: KristiWhyKelly at aol.com

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] making ahead and freezing...

To: jenne at fiedlerfamily.net, sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

Yes, it freezes quite well. Up to 4 months.

Things I've made and frozen. Salmon in puff paste, assemble and freeze.

Savory Toasted Cheese does a great boil-a-bag as well. Just pop the frozen

sauce into hot water, then when warmed squeeze the bag around until

the sauce is on longer separated.

Grace

In a message dated 12/5/2004 8:49:12 AM Eastern Standard Time,

jenne at fiedlerfamily.net writes:

Ok, has anyone on this list made-ahead applemoys and frozen it?

Date: Sun, 05 Dec 2004 18:06:51 -0500

From: Micaylah <dy018 at freenet.carleton.ca>

Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] making ahead and freezing...

To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> Ok, has anyone on this list made-ahead applemoys and frozen it?

> Any other period dishes that would work frozen ahead? I've had good luck

> with armored turnips (after all, they are just a casserole)...

Losynges and makerouns, tarts, sops, pottages, sauces, frumenty and rice

(vacuum sealed boiling bags), hommous, payne perdue, patÈ, sawsedge, and so

on.

Micaylah

Date: Sun, 05 Dec 2004 16:46:08 -0700

From: "Kathleen A Roberts" <karobert at unm.edu>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] making ahead and freezing...

To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

so many good things to freeze, even salmon and cheese

tarts!

if you can get hold of the rodale, settlement or any of

the encyclopedic cookbooks of the '50s and 60s, they have

freezer charts for ingredients. there isn't a lot you

can't freeze, if you do it correctly for the ingredients.

and taters are OOP anyway! ;)

cailte

Date: Sun, 5 Dec 2004 15:56:13 -0800 (PST)

From: Aurelia Rufinia <aureliarufinia at yahoo.com>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] making ahead and freezing...

To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooksansteorra.org>

For my first feast (which was yesterday) I froze the

rabbit pottage, and stage one of the chicken ambrogino

(browned chicken and onons) and chickpea soup. Other

than intensive work to thaw the stuff, (boil in a bag

never occurred to me) it worked great and everything

tasted nummy (i'm told, I didn't get a chance to eat

most of it.)

Aurelia